Music firms call for fairer royalties

Music companies are calling for law changes that would allow them to be paid fairer royalties by video streaming services, an annual report has shown.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents thousands of major and independent record companies all over the world, 1.3 billion users listened to recorded music on video-streaming services last year, from which music companies were paid $856 million (£612m) in royalties.

In contrast, music companies received $5.6 billion in revenue from paid and advertsupported audio streaming services, such as Spotify, which the report claims were used by 272 million users in 2017. The IFPI has called for a change to online liability laws, which they say have contributed to a mismatch between the value created by video streaming platforms like Youtube and what is paid to artists and record companies.

The IFPI has accused video streaming services, such as Youtube, of using previously inconsistent application of these laws to avoid licensing music.